Particle Baits
Particle baits are very over looked by most Carp Anglers as most Carpers will go and buy a bag of Boilies rather than steaming up the house with the smell of particles.
Don’t get me wrong you can buy them ready prepared by the likes of Hinders and Dynamite. Those of you with any doubts of preparing particles should think of using hinders and dynamite ready prepared particles.
I will now go through the process of preparing particle baits smaller particle baits are a bit less hastle to prepare, with these smaller particles the soaking process is around half the time of larger particles I have used most of them mainly back in the 80s when there wasn’t much boilie variety on the tackle shop shelves, plus it was less hastle to prepare particles then making Boilies from scratch.
The small particles I recommend are: - Hemp, Tares, Red Dari, Black eyes peas, Buck Wheat, and Maple Peas of which need to be soaked for 12 hours and boiled for 1hour and Partiblend which can be boiled for 1 hour. Larger particles like Tiger nuts, Peanuts, Maize, Broad beans, Haricot beans, Adzuki beans and Red Kidney beans need soaking for 24 hours and 1.5 hours to boil Most particles will swell up to nearly twice their size when soaked, giving you more weight and mass in your bait bucket.
(A classic particle mix)
Carp care
I imagine your bait bucket as a Carps stomach, fill your bucket full of particles to the top and add water the water will soon run out and the particles will be over flowing out of the bucket this proves particles that are not prepared right can and have done damage to fish in most cases can cause death, not just Carp other fish too as most fish will feed on smaller particles Tench I prebaited a water near home back in the 80s with Maple peas and caught 20 odd Tench and 2 Carp where other Anglers on the lake weren’t catching Carp on the Ritchworth boilies that were mainly used on there. So if you can put up with a few Tench it’s worth a try.
Hemp
I also did well on Hemp and Casters using the Hemp and Casters to feed and Casters on the Hair rig and caught plenty of Roach and Skimmer but when the Carp moved in I ended up using 6 pints of Hemp and three pints of Casters catching 8 Carp and this was on a cold frosty day in January as this is a very good winter combination you can use these particles in P.V.A bags I dry the Casters and Hemp off if with a bit of dry crumb or better still use Sensas ground Hemp.
You can now purchase P.V.A friendly Hemp, Tiger Nuts, and Maize, from Cotswold baits.
When you boil particles they release their oils so I leave them in the water that they have boiled them is especially Hemp water I have used the Hemp water a few times to rehydrate boilies and caught Carp.
With Hemp seed you need to boil it until the white seed pops out Buck wheat resembles Hemp in looks and when boiled it splits and the inner seed pops out.
(Properly cooked Hemp)
Buck wheat
Buck wheat is half the price of Hemp and looks like Hemp but larger in size it resembles small Water Snails in shape and texture so add a Shell fish flavour e.g. Monster Crab and some Salt there’s you’re Snails. I used Buck wheat back in the early days with great results fishing boilies over the top.
Tiger Nuts
The main instant particle I have used and still use now is the Tiger nut, when the Tiger nuts are prepared get an air tight bucket put them in with the water you have cooked them in, leave them in a warm place for 2 to 3 days and they will slime up you can also add flavours to the slime as most of the slime stays in your spod when spodding and gives off a brilliant slimy attractant sinking slowly down the water column attracting the Carp down to your baited area.
(Old faithfull Tiger Nuts)
Peanuts
I have fished Peanuts with great success in the past me and a of my fishing mates used them back in the 80s with great success there was literally 50 kilos going in every week between us in the summer months with plenty of fish coming to all our rods this went on for at least two seasons and more boilies reached the shop shelves and we all ended up on the boilies. The rig I used was a size 8 ounce lion dor hook with a one pound breaking strain line off the bend of the hook with up to 6 Peanuts hanging off it with a Dacron hook link those were the days.
Chick peas
I have used Chick Peas with great success again back in the 80s.
They are very versatile as they are light in colour and will take on any colour and are bland in taste and will take on any flavour with a sweet flavour I will use a sweetener or sugar.
With a savoury flavour add a bit of salt & chilli powder they are also easy to catapult as they are pretty round just like mini boilies.
Black eyed peas
The way I prepare Black Eyed Peas is to get hold of some Beef and Tomato Cuppa soup, I use five sachets to a kilo of Black eyed peas with a 2 table spoons of salt for taste soak for 24 hours and boil for one hour and let them cool and put them in air tight container with the soup that they were cooked in this will stop them drying out.
Maize
Maize is a bit like the Chick Pea for flavouring and colouring purposes e.g. when you stop catching on plain Maize add a colour and a flavour as the fish will see yellow as danger and be very wary. Maize looks very much like Sweet Corn but larger with a protective skin making it difficult for small fish to break down to bite size. Maize is very high in natural sugars the more it ferments the better it is you can safely leave it in an air tight bucket for at least two weeks but add plenty of salt say 5 table spoons per kilo cooked weight.
Maize is full of Carbohydrates from its natural sugars used with a Protein boilie it is well balanced meal for the Carp meaning the Carp will keep coming back for its well balanced meal. Me and my pals used Maize by the sack full in Bulgaria and caught a lot of Carp including a 44lb Grass Carp.
I have seen cruising fish pass over my Maize baited area over still and gone straight down on it as it is very visual bait.
(Prepared Maize)
Maize is good combined with Hemp as a Spod mix as you won’t be able to catapult the Hemp and Maize together as Maize is heavier then Hemp you have to take this into consideration before you mix them if you haven’t got a Spod rod or Bait boat.
It can also be mixed with Vitalin and formed into balls.
With the aid of ground bait catapult can be fired to your chosen baited area.
Vitalin is just flakes of Maize that takes on hot water quickly giving you a stiff mix that will delivers any particle. Pellet or boilie to your baited area, and can be purchased from most pet supplies and seed merchants.
Now enjoy your Carp fishing and try Particle baits.